Louis Vuitton’s new psychedelic wristwatch turns heads

The French luxury brand started taking an interest in watches in the early 2000s

Rowan Dunne

Published

3 hours ago

LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE (OTCMKTS: LVMHF) (FRA: MOH), the world’s largest luxury goods conglomerate, has started selling an eye-catching psychedelic wristwatch to buyers with deep pockets.

This unusual white gold piece from its Louis Vuitton brand, called the Tambour Taiko Arty Automata, turns the dial into a colourful mechanical show with moving parts. The design includes a moving eyeball with real bird feathers as eyelashes, spinning hearts, stars, clouds and flowers. Its name essentially means that it is a French-Japanese style artistic drum with mechanical animations.

The model costs about US$485,000 and exists in very limited numbers because each watch face requires more than 250 hours of skilled handwork. It features four layers with small hand-engraved gold shapes. Makers used seven enamel methods, including one that carves spaces into the metal before filling them with colour. Louis Vuitton’s skilled artisans applied 23 shades of enamel baked at high heat for a strong, bright result.

The time appears in a small window slightly off-centre at the 3 o’clock position. Pressing a button at 8 o’clock activates seven small mechanical parts. These perform coordinated movements. They make a heart rock between lips, cause the word “LOVE” to change to “MOVE,” make flowers spin and the get the eyeball to turn as if looking around. A row of 48 rectangular, brightly coloured rubies and sapphires lines the outer edge in a rainbow pattern.

The watch contains an in-house automatic movement developed at Louis Vuitton’s workshop in Geneva. It winds itself from normal wrist motion and holds a 65-hour power reserve.

This luxury piece comes with a red calfskin leather strap. Most traditional luxury watches use simple, clean faces and focus only on telling time while looking fancy and serving as a status symbol. This model places animated mechanical scenes at the centre instead. It is a limited, ultra-luxury piece aimed at collectors who appreciate bold, over-the-top watchmaking rather than understated elegance.

Louis Vuitton entered serious watchmaking relatively recently compared to its 1854 founding as a trunk maker. The brand’s horological journey began in 2002 with the launch of the iconic Tambour collection, marking a bold new push into Swiss mechanical watches.